In 2021 infertility has spread like a plague, and no babies have been born for a quarter of a century anywhere in the inhabited world The old are driven to despair and suicide, and the young are beautiful, violent and cruel The middle aged try to sustain normality under the rule of the Warden of England Theo Faron, Oxford historian, meets a girl who is one of a group challenging the regime His life is dramatically changed, and he is drawn into unimaginable horrors